The Writings of George M. Ella

Posts Tagged Great Rebellion

Gary Brady’s book of 165 pages purports to give the background of 2,000 ministers who rebelled against the Church of England’s and the King’s authority in 1662 and suffered under a Parliament that had no respect either for the one nor the other. Anti-Dissenting laws formerly enforced against the Church of England by the Commission of Ejectors under Cromwell’s Commonwealth Councils were now applied to a minority who rejected the restored Church. In order to understand the fate of all these 17 century Dissenters from different parties, it is necessary to trace the persecutions back to their roots during Mary’s bloody reign and throughout the reigns of Elizabeth, James, Charles I, Cromwell and Charles II. Brady… Full Article

Lecture given at the Protestant Reformation Society, Regent’s Park College, Oxford, 2007 The Troubles at Frankfurt A Vindication of our Martyrs’ Legacy The tiny enclave that rescued the Reformation in England Readers of Asterix will be familiar with a tiny fortress, a mere dot on the map of the Roman Empire, which was to bring Rome to its knees. So much for fairy-tales. Solid fact are better than airy fiction. The real Frankfurt of 1553-59 was also a tiny bastion on the Roman Catholic map which because of its hospitality to the bulk of the Marian refugees, succeeded, by God’s grace, in providing the doctrinal and spiritual power which brought down a more dangerous Rome in Reformation England. Sadly… Full Article

Part One: The Ejection of the ‘Scandalous Ministers’ The problem outlined Having spent all my life in Free Church circles, I learnt very early of the severe persecutions meted out in England during the 17th century to Dissenters, Non-Conformists and Non-Jurors who wished to preach, teach and witness in Anglican parishes. Two books which became of special influence in forming my judgement were Thomas Coleman’s The Two Thousand Confessors of Sixteen Hundred and Sixty-Two and Edmund Calamy’s The Nonconformist’s Memorial, a three-volumed work on the same period. I treasure these works which served under God to cause me to abhor any form of religious, political and social persecution. As a result… Full Article

Queen Elizabeth II’s Role in the Church of England Dear Sir, Archbishop Rowan warns against self-deception regarding the supreme government of the Church of England, seemingly unaware himself that there are no ecclesiastical, political or constitutional grounds for assuming Elizabeth II to be that church’s Supreme Governor. At the Elizabethan Settlement, Cox, Sandys, Grindal etc. persuaded Elizabeth I to drop the title of Supreme Head formerly held by her father and half-sister. Instead, she was advised to adopt the title of Supreme Governor of the Realm. This title was later confirmed, not by the Queen herself, nor by Convocation, which was not consulted, but by Parliament who in April, 1559 decreed… Full Article